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Does the time of the day of harvesting really matter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BrutusKajautus
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Does the time of the day of harvesting really matter?

BrutusKajautus 26 Replies 5,047 Views
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BrutusKajautus

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#1
So I need to finally cut my plants. All of them. And I need to do it now.

I've read online that one should do that in the morning before intense light hits the plants to maximize quality. Is there any real merit to that? Like, has it been studied, and what's the consensus here about it? Asking bc a lot of stuff I read online seems to be bro science.
 
#8
It 100% does play a role. The bro-science is an unfortunate reality with cannabis but the scientific community is quickly stomping it all out!

Multiple factors are relevant. Yes, to what you said initially. If harvesting during the day time then your potency will be decreasing throughout the day (morning would be the most potent). This effect is nominal and really only matters for try-hards. The mechanism is photons, mostly the high energy ones like UV, destroying cuticle heads and being repaired at night. This is why you will see a cyclical potency oscillation day to day as the potency trends up during flower.

If you believe in flushing or understand mass transport in botany, you'd be aware of the salt transport cycles in cannabis from day to night - meaning one should always harvest during the given plants night cycle with the first step to harvest being severing the root system from the plant. Try it for yourself - it changed my life. It is most important for soil mediums where your salt content is always a guess at best.

If anything, the pre-drying on stem by depriving of water is bro-science (unless you live somewhere with absurd humidity levels and need to). You're shortening your dry - which you want to be the longest possible. Also potentially locking chlorophyll and salts into flower tissue which is only going to aggravate a cure phase. If you do a side-by-side of flower dried on stem versus not, the flower NOT dried on stem is going to taste fire way earlier in the cure than the flower dried on stem.

The same way that bending a plant to your schedule only has so much legs. For example, if you swap the photoperiod timing around...the next few days the plant will still be conducting mass transport on the original rhythm. So you can't just do two days of darkness and then harvest in your 'would-be' daytime that is now dark to get this effect.
 
#10
ATLien415 said:
It 100% does play a role. The bro-science is an unfortunate reality with cannabis but the scientific community is quickly stomping it all out!

Multiple factors are relevant. Yes, to what you said initially. If harvesting during the day time then your potency will be decreasing throughout the day (morning would be the most potent). This effect is nominal and really only matters for try-hards. The mechanism is photons, mostly the high energy ones like UV, destroying cuticle heads and being repaired at night. This is why you will see a cyclical potency oscillation day to day as the potency trends up during flower.

If you believe in flushing or understand mass transport in botany, you'd be aware of the salt transport cycles in cannabis from day to night - meaning one should always harvest during the given plants night cycle with the first step to harvest being severing the root system from the plant. Try it for yourself - it changed my life. It is most important for soil mediums where your salt content is always a guess at best.

If anything, the pre-drying on stem by depriving of water is bro-science (unless you live somewhere with absurd humidity levels and need to). You're shortening your dry - which you want to be the longest possible. Also potentially locking chlorophyll and salts into flower tissue which is only going to aggravate a cure phase. If you do a side-by-side of flower dried on stem versus not, the flower NOT dried on stem is going to taste fire way earlier in the cure than the flower dried on stem.

The same way that bending a plant to your schedule only has so much legs. For example, if you swap the photoperiod timing around...the next few days the plant will still be conducting mass transport on the original rhythm. So you can't just do two days of darkness and then harvest in your 'would-be' daytime that is now dark to get this effect.
Click to expand...
Thanks! So if I understand you correctly you're saying that harvesting during the night cycle may affect the taste of the product due to the salt content being lower, and the effect on the potency should be negligible? I don't understand mass transport in botany, but now I want to, so maybe I'll pick up a greenhouse gardening book in a library.

Also, based on what you're saying ig it would be the fastest to wet trim and let dry in a rack. I wonder if this is solely about the time window or if it has an effect on the final product's taste regardless.

Edited a typo
 
Last edited:
#13
BrutusKajautus said:
So I need to finally cut my plants. All of them. And I need to do it now.

I've read online that one should do that in the morning before intense light hits the plants to maximize quality. Is there any real merit to that? Like, has it been studied, and what's the consensus here about it? Asking bc a lot of stuff I read online seems to be bro science.
Click to expand...
Figiding at the end of grow. Beautiful 😍 plant I saw you grow by the way. Look through a loupe and decide.

or

OMG they are overripe! Soon as your done reading this chop them. 😜 It's all juju and there is plenty out there. I like morning when they are happy. Because trimming is an all day affair at my house.
 
#14
BrutusKajautus said:
Thanks! So if I understand you correctly you're saying that harvesting during the night cycle may affect the taste of the product due to the salt content being lower, and the effect on the potency should be negligible? I don't understand mass transport in botany, but now I want to, so maybe I'll pick up a greenhouse gardening book in a library.

Also, based on what you're saying ig it would be the fastest to wet trim and let dry in a rack. I wonder if this is solely about the time window or if it has an effect on the final product's taste regardless.

Edited a typo
Click to expand...
The way it was explained to me - in the grand scheme of the salts and the plant, free salts will be in plant tissue during the day and be moved to the roots at night. You can sometimes observe this yourself with hydroponics where your EC may increase some at night, as long as you are evaporating little and can measure it consistently. So one would cut the stalk at the plant's normal night time (as they have established rhythms that change slowly much like we do when it comes to biological processes) then could freely use a non-intense light in the grow room for the remainder of the harvest.

In my experience, this is one of the key steps (along with a flush and a top-shelf dry routine) to perfect tasting flower with a minimal few days to few week cure. I have also been able to remediate not doing this (chop at night or flush) simply by dragging a cure out (months). Remediating a messed up dry is more difficult in my opinion.
 
#19
Ninjadogma said:
Dude how else do you think they harvest those nicely dusted Moonrocks???
Click to expand...
IMG 2325
 
#20
Jimmie said:
I’m willing to bet no one on this site could tell whether a plant was harvested at night or day, during a full moon or otherwise. That’s that biodynamic farming practices.
Click to expand...
Probably not! But growing outdoors carries a lot of rituals with it! If you care to observe them! I think the weed seems a little tastier if you do! It’s kind of a mindset! Who am I to disregard the practices and ceremonies that farmers have been practicing for hundreds of generations! I’m not that modern yet! I I still go out in the night on a full moon in September, October, and November and practice a little ceremony where I offer up a small cola as a sacrifice to mother nature!🤪 it doesn’t hurt your juju! And I think she smiles on you for doing it! Just a little bit of the spiritual aspect! I think the main benefit is to my soul!
 
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